Memorials of Connecticut Judges and Attorneys
As Printed in the Connecticut Reports
volume 57, page(s) 592-595

OBITUARY SKETCH OF GEORGE H. WATROUS

[The following sketch of Mr. Watrous was prepared by Ex-Governor Henry B.
Harrison of the New Haven County bar for the American Bar Association and will
appear in vol. 12th of its reports.]

The time has come when no man whose life has ended can be long remembered in
this busy world unless he has had a career of eminent distinction.

He whose chief claim upon public regard consists in the fact that he has
faithfully devoted high natural gifts of intellect and moral character, combined
with thorough education and training, to the discharge of the duties of any
profession, however honorable, must soon be forgotten.

It is right however that when such a man has lived, and loyally done his
work, and finished it, and taken his departure, some friend of his should say
for him a word or two of commemoration.

GEORGE HENRY WATROUS, whose paternal ancestors were natives of Connecticut,
was born in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, April 26th, 1829. Soon afterwards his
father's family removed to Conklin, New York, where his earlier years were
spent. After preliminary training in the common schools and at Homer Academy
and, for a short time, at Madison University, he entered Yale College, as a
Junior, in 1850, and there graduated as one of the most brilliant members of the
celebrated class of 1853. In 1855 he was admitted to the bar at New Haven, where
his subsequent life was past. In 1857 he became a partner of Governor Dutton in
the practice of law under the firm name of Dutton & Watrous. This association
continued until 1861, when Gov. Dutton became Judge of the Supreme Court. Mr.
Watrous remained in practice, conducting a very large and profitable business,
until 1879, when he was chosen President of the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad Company, of which corporation he had long been a director and the
principal legal adviser and representative.

In 1857 he married Harriet J. Dutton, daughter of Gov. Dutton. She died in
January, 1873, leaving two sons and one daughter. In 1874 he married Lily M.
Graves, daughter of Hon. Henry B. Graves of Litchfield, who, with four children,
survives him.

Connecticut has always had its full share of able lawyers. Among those of his
own time Mr. Watrous gained a conspicuous position in the front rank. It was
inevitable, from his whole "make-up," that he should do so. His intellect was
acute, his industry was indefatigable, and his ambition was directed exclusively
to success in his profession. His scholarly education and habits had highly
developed in him a natural capacity for logical reasoning and for nice and
critical distinctions, together with a natural taste for the expression of his
thoughts in choice and strong English. Above all he was in hearty sympathy with
the moral elements of the English Common Law. He shared its spirit of absolute
justice, its hatred of fraud, its love of good faith in all things, its
charitable temper, and its sound common sense. In fact his personal
characteristics were to a great extent, morally, the characteristics of the law
itself.

Devoted as he was to the law he was not indifferent to the duties of good
citizenship in affairs disconnected with his profession. His political
convictions were strong, and in the earlier part of his career he was zealous
among a group of young men who were specially active in originally organizing
the Republican party in Connecticut. But his partisanship had no bitterness in
it. In 1864 he represented New Haven in the General Assembly of the state, and
at various times he was elected to municipal offices in that city, but every
office that came to him came unsought.

His administration of the presidency of the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad Company was eminently successful. He concentrated upon the management
of that great corporation all his energies, both of body and of mind. The
company grew steadily in strength and prosperity along many lines of
development, until at last the health of Mr. Watrous broke down in its service
and he consequently resigned his office in 1887. After more than two years of
retirement from all business he died July 5th, 1889.

This is a very imperfect sketch of the life of an able and learned lawyer, an
honest man, an accomplished scholar and a most kind and generous and courteous
gentleman.

At a meeting of the bar of New Haven County held on the occasion of the death
of Mr. Watrous, the following resolutions were passed:

"The members of the Bar of New Haven County have heard with deep regret that
Hon. George H. Watrous, who for more than thirty years has been one of their
most esteemed leaders, has departed from this life.

"During his long and eminently successful career at the bar he won respect
for his commanding ability, honor for his rare integrity, admiration for his
brilliant discernment and sound judgment, and affection for his unselfish
nature. They unite with the citizens of New Haven in sorrow at his comparatively
early demise and tender their profound sympathy to his bereaved family."

REMARKS OF EX-GOV. CHARLES R. INGERSOLL UPON THE FOREGOING RESOLUTIONS.

MR. PRESIDENT.--The resolutions presented by Judge Harrison so
fittingly express the common sentiment of this bar that I know it is unnecessary
for me to add to them a single word. But yet I cannot withhold the expression of
my personal sense of the loss which has been sustained by this bar and the
community by the death of Mr. Watrous. For although he came to the bar some
years after I did, we have, ever since his admission to practice, been more or
less associated, in many ways, both within and without the court-room.

And, Mr. President, no one could be associated with George H. Watrous in any
way, and particularly in his professional practice, without being very soon
impressed by the force of his individuality and his personal worth. He was
emphatically a strong man,--intellectually and morally a very strong man. As a
lawyer, I think all of us who have been his contemporaries in practice will
agree that he was unsurpassed at our bar in mental vigor and acumen. He was a
learned lawyer also, and, as we all know, a most effective trier of cases,
whether before court or jury. His vigorous grasp of a case was always
tenaciously held until everything on his side was exhausted to his satisfaction.
Perhaps this trait of perseverance led him at times to over-elaboration, but it
never degenerated into weakness. Beyond all this he was, under all
circumstances, a man of wholesome integrity,--of uncompromising integrity I
might well say, in speaking of him professionally; for it was doubtless this
high sense of the abstract right that made him so averse, as we generally found
him to be, to the settlement of cases in which he felt that the right was on his
side.

I think, Mr. President, that we generally regretted his leaving the bar for
the presidency of the railroad company, great as was the compliment to his
abilities implied by the offer of that responsible and honorable position. We
regretted to lose him as an associate, and we regretted to lose him from the
profession. And I believe I can truly add that most of us also regretted it on
his own account, for he had at that time achieved a position at the bar which,
apparently, assured to him many years of successful leadership.

I have thought that some such regret came to himself afterwards. And when he
had laid down the burden of his railway office he seemed to be instinctively
drawn to this court-room as the field of his life's ambition and pleasure. There
was very much of sadness to me in those frequent visits here, when the busy
actor became only the passive listener. I would have had him here in the
fullness of his strength and activity. But he recalled the forest oak that had
been transplanted in the years of its maturity. Very sad, too, have been the
slowly advancing evidences of his failing life. And how solemnly has come the
final shock Only this week, on Monday, I saw him at this table listening with
interest to a case then under argument, and a day or two afterwards he spoke to
me of the impressions he had received. A great change had, however, then come to
him, and the contrast with the old days was most painful. But I could not have
imagined, Mr. President, that before the week should close I should be here
participating in this tribute to his honored life and memory.

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